Last Resort Series Finale Discussion *Spoilers Possible*

[degra]

C.E. Evans wrote:

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IMO, Last Resort should have just been a 4-hour miniseries. The more the situation dragged out, the worse it became.

I gave up on it 4 episodes in,,,I wasn't about to get fooled into another high concept series that starts out with a very limited premise that the writers try to drag out so it can be a multiple season show. It ends up watering it down and frustrating viewers in the process,,,that's assuming the show is solid to begin with,,,which last resort most definitely wasn't.

if you are going down that road then commit to the notion it is just a mini series.a lot of tv now is really just limited premise mini series pretending to be shows with legs,,,deception, the mediocre new series the following, revenge, the killing, last resort, the upcoming ABC drama zero hour, last years Alcatraz, etc.

[foxhot]

But Robert Patrick's COB survived against all expectations. What more could anyone want?

[Enterprise is Great]

Shawn Ryan talks about how the rest of the season would've played out if the show wasn't canceled

[bullethead]

degra wrote:

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I gave up on it 4 episodes in,,,I wasn't about to get fooled into another high concept series that starts out with a very limited premise that the writers try to drag out so it can be a multiple season show. It ends up watering it down and frustrating viewers in the process,,,that's assuming the show is solid to begin with,,,which last resort most definitely wasn't.

if you are going down that road then commit to the notion it is just a mini series.a lot of tv now is really just limited premise mini series pretending to be shows with legs,,,deception, the mediocre new series the following, revenge, the killing, last resort, the upcoming ABC drama zero hour, last years Alcatraz, etc.

Yeah, I dropped it after 2 or 3 episodes because things were already ridiculous and I couldn't care about most of the cast. If it had been a miniseries that was tightly focused around the whole issue of the morality of the order to fire on Pakistan and the conspiracy in the US, then it might have done better.

[bigdaddy]

Enterprise is Great wrote:

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Shawn Ryan talks about how the rest of the season would've played out if the show wasn't canceled

Thank god this got canceled...

we accelerated and really minimized a story that was going to play bigger in subsequent episodes with James and Tani and these prospectors that were on the island and starting to mistreat people from Tani's tribe. That was going to play out as a much bigger thing.

And the plans for the back nine, having people coming to the island looking for a new America of a kind, and having the blockade gone. Just weird to me. It shows that this show was very limited, and had no real plan from the beginning. I also like how he talks about how ABC liked the plans for the back nine. Like they would come out and say it sucks. But they ordered two extra scripts because being canceled. Ratings were on the line for a back nine, I can't help but think that if the scripts were better ABC would have went "Fine, here are 9 more". It's not like any of their other shows have been a huge success this year.

It sounds nice though that ABC didn't really fuck with the show, just let them do what they want.

[QUOTE]We talked about this in the summer, and Paul Lee was fairly open about this: this show was not an ideal fit for ABC's brand. Given all that, is there anything you could have done with the show — forget about quality for a second, but in terms of making it fit in more with the brand to maybe make it more successful?

We talked about this in the summer, and Paul Lee was fairly open about this: this show was not an ideal fit for ABC's brand. Given all that, is there anything you could have done with the show — forget about quality for a second, but in terms of making it fit in more with the brand to maybe make it more successful?

Shawn Ryan: Probably. But nothing that I could have lived with creatively. In retrospect, probably the thing I could have done was sell it to NBC and have them air it after "The Voice."

At least he has a sense of humour.

I'm loving this interview! He started to like the show more when the rest of us started giving up on it! I think this is why the show had no future!

I think we struggled a little bit in the first couple of episodes after the pilot to find a strong, simple throughline for the story. I liked those first couple of episodes, but I didn't love 'em. I felt like we really got into a groove starting around episode 5.

Yes ABC really loved the show... That's why they didn't bother moving it...

that we had a network that really loved the show — Paul Lee, creatively, really loved the show, and so did his execs, and we were on time and we were on budget, so we had a lot of goodwill over there. ABC wasn't looking to get rid of us, and Paul was a little heartbroken that America didn't discover it. I knew things were dire early on, and I just kept working and controlling what I could control.

I miss Chicago Code.

Great interview, thanks for posting.

[Forbin]

Kinda confused what happened with Christine. The guy that was helping Sam kidnapped her using the van explosion as cover, then sold her to... who? Who just took her right home.

[Angel4576]

I loved the premise set up by the first episode of this series. Sadly, everything afterwards has largely disappointed me. As a series finale, it's better than nothing, however things were obviously far too rushed.

Ultimately, if this had been cancelled after the pilot then I'd have been gutted, but seeing how the show floundered over the next 12 episodes, I'm really not that bothered.

[bigdaddy]

Forbin wrote:

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Kinda confused what happened with Christine. The guy that was helping Sam kidnapped her using the van explosion as cover, then sold her to... who? Who just took her right home.

They didn't have time to explain that, she was rescued off camera. I think the Chinese still had her, I really don't know.

[Brolan]

Enterprise is Great wrote:

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Shawn Ryan talks about how the rest of the season would've played out if the show wasn't canceled

Yes, thank god this was cancelled. I can think of nothing less interesting than sitting on the island and making that the focus of the show.

[Mr Light]

This was never a sustainable premise, but I did stick with it to the end. It was very good in places, and very uninteresting in other places... I started just fast forwarding through all the scenes with the girl from Dollhouse and the sniper guy. Ugh.

[tighr]

The editing in the final few episodes was absolutely atrocious. I know they were trying to shoehorn things in, and had limited time, but events were happening without any clear explanation for how or why. The wife was rescued out of nowhere, the Speaker of the House feels he needs to Budd Dwyer himself with NO explanation, Autumn Reeser's boyfriend (not sure, it seemed like she banged at least three dudes in this show) kills himself in the hotel room for no reason... was Autumn Reeser's dad good or bad? Did he want the President killed or saved? So convoluted.

Why did Chaplain stay on the boat if the F-18s were coming to blow it up anyway? He said something about blowing it up with dry missiles, but the jets fired on it, too. He could have escaped with everyone else. Why are all these people perfectly willing to kill themselves?

On the flip side, why does the SEAL not kill the Chinese dude at the end? Just because the Sierra Doll tells him not to kill? That Chinese guy was bad. And as mentioned earlier in the thread, Serratt should have been killed back in episode one.

Even simple things were edited poorly: like when the ship hit the sandbar, we do not see a reaction shot of the bridge like we do of the Captain and XO. But we do later see the people on the bridge, and they're all bloodied and bruised. That's a rookie mistake by an editor.

[bigdaddy]

The captain actually explained that he had to stay on board because who knew if the planes were actually going to fire on it, because of the way the USA is run now.

But yeah, he could have left and then went back if they didn't blow it up. It wasn't going anywhere. Plus he said he didn't have any reason to live. He still had one living son. They didn't get along, but if you are alive then you can work on it.

[Aragorn]

Serrat should've been killed in any of the episodes for what he keeps doing and gets away with, but I guess ABC needed their primetime Sonny Corinthos (if you even get that reference).

I was half expecting Sophie to kill Serrat in the final episode.

[Mr Light]

I've already forgotten did someone finally kill him?

[Brolan]

Mr Light wrote:

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I've already forgotten did someone finally kill him?

Stupidly, no. Apparently everyone forgot he killed one of the sailors on the sub.